The Red Sox are Relevant Again as They Sign Alex Bregman to a 3-Year, $120 Million Deal

Mary DeCicco. Getty Images.

The Red Sox have taken a supernova of heat over the last three or so years. All of it well deserved. Ever since they started dumping popular, beloved home-grown talent like Mookie Betts so that John Henry - whose yacht is worth more than the town I live in - could avoid the luxury tax and spend more on his hockey, soccer and racing team, his ownership group has earned every Taylor Swift treatment they've gotten:

Because all their subtractions without additions have led to the one unpardonable sin for a once-proud franchise. It's made the club irrelevant. All of last spring through fall, I can honestly say the number of Red Sox-adjacent conversations I had could be counted on your fingers. A team can endure a down period where their fans are frustrated or pissed off. The one thing it can't survive is their fanbase no longer caring how bad or how good they are. You risk alienating the next few generations of paying customers. There's no coming back from that.

But that's in the past. Today is about giving them credit where it's due. Most of us woke up this morning to find they've made a bold, aggressive move to sign one of the most sought after free agents of the offseason. And it deserves to be celebrated:

One that will transform their lineup with the stroke of a pen on a dotted line. (Note the contract was probably on an encrypted email and e-signed, but let's not facts get in the way of the drama of the moment.):

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Not to mention the wonders this'll do for the middle of the infield:

Sure, you could nitpick some of the details of the contract. The fact it allows Bregman to opt out at the end of each of the next two seasons. Though since he's reunited with Alex Cora, that might not even be an issue. Regardless, that's a problem for future us. The here and now is that this team just got appreciably more interesting. The front office did what their fanbase have been demanding they do (on the rare occasions they've been paying attention) which is to spend some of the revenue from the highest ticket prices and concessions in the league to make the product on the field better. In short, to give us a reason to care beyond watching Jarren Duran and Rafael Devers on a team that was the pluperfect definition of average. An 81-81 record with almost the exact same number of runs scored (751) as runs allowed (747). 

Now they've changed the whole trajectory of the franchise. And possibly shifted the balance of power in the AL East, even if just slightly. The idea of watching October baseball again in Boston just became a legitimate hope once more. And for now, a hope will do.